Igniter mechanism for internal-combustion engines.



H. R. VAN DEVENTER. IGNIT ER MECHANISM FOR INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES.APPLICATION FILED DEC. 24. 19m.

1,1763%; Patented Mar. 21,1916.

i TT

Parana price.

HARRY RANDOLPH VAN DEVENT ER, SUMTER, SOUTH CAROLINA, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNEASSIGNMENTS, TO SPLITDOIRF ELECTRICAL COMPANY, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, ACORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

IGNITER MECHANISM FOR INTERNAL-COMBUSTION ENGINES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 21, ENG.

Application filed December 24, 1914. Serial No. 878,933. -A-4 .5

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, I'IARRY RANDOLPH VANDnvnx'rnu, a' citizen of the United .States. residin at Sumter. in thecountv' of I a e Sumter and State of South Carolina, have inventedcertain new and useful improvements in Igniter Mechanism for Internal-'Combustion Engines, of which the following 1s a specification, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawing.

My invention relates to ignition apparatus for internal combustionengines and has for its purposethe provision of a compact and etficientignition unit, self-contained and mounted upon or in close associationwith the igniter proper of the engine.

Briefly stated the invention comprises a frame adapted'to be mounted onor near the engine cylinder and carrying an ignit'er which is sopositioned as to project into the -ignition chamber of the engine whenthe frame is mounted. The frame also carries bearing surfaces, onewithin the other, for the igniter operating shaft and a trip leverrespectively, these bearings being carried by the frame independently ofeach other. The advantage of this arrangement of the bear ings is thatthe lateral and axial strains put upon the trip lever by the operatingforces are confined to it. The frame also carries a bracket on which themagneto is supported as Well as extensions or arms with projecting postsfor mounting the various operating parts. The trip lever and theoperating shafts of the magneto. and igniter are so positioned inrelation to each other that a pure tangential or rotary motion only 'isto produce other motion being,confined to the trip lever.

Various means may be made use of for operating the trip lever and otherparts, a i specific means being shown, and described in the accompanyingspecification by way of example. I

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which Figure1 is a plan view of my ignition unit applied to the cylinder wall shownin section. Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the same with themagnetoremoved. Fig. 3 is a fragmentary View similar to Fig. l but of amodified form.

In the drawings, I indicates a wall of the engine cyhnder, which may beofany standaid or desired type to which this'general ignitercoiiperating with a fixed electrode 4 carried on the body. The electrode3 is mounted on a. shaft 5 which-extends through the body 2. foroperation by mechanism external to the cylinder.

Secured to the body 2 is a bracket 7 pro jectlng from the enginecylinder in a plane parallel to the axis of the igniter, and preferablyhorizontal. Integral .with this bracket, and also with the igniter body2, is a plate or flange 6 carrying arms 8 and 9 upon'which are mountedposts or studs 10. and 11, serving as fixed anchorages for the outerends of the operating springs 12 and 13. A. hollow stub shaft 40projects outwardly from the flange (3 and surrounds the ignite-r shaft5. Mounted upon this stub shaft 40, and adapted to oscillate freelythereon is an actuator or trip lever 14 with an upwardly projectingfinger 15 in the path of reciprocating travel of a push rod 16 whichwhen the engine is running is moved back and fortlras indicated thedouble headed arrow in Fig. 2. This reciprocating motion may be impartedto the push ro'd by a crank or cam or other device driven by the enginein a manner which will be well understood by those skilled in' the art.The. engagement of the parts 15 and 16 is adapted to be controlled by'two other independent elements, the first .being an eccentric 17mounted on a fixed? shaft 18 and rotatable by means of a handle 19;and-the second element being the bell crank lever 2021,

' whose arm 20 lifts the push rod 16 so that it cannot engage the finger15, when the arm 21 is forced to the left as indicated in dotted linesin Fig. 2, by a pin or stud 22 on the exhaust valve operating rod 23.The .function of the eccentric cam 17 is toeiiect timing of the spark bydetermining the extent of engagement ofthe end of the push rod 16 withthe finger 15, and thereby the exact point in the stroke of the push rodat which it will slip over the point of the finger 15 and permit theactuator to be snapped back by the springs. The function of the bellcrank lever 20-21 is to disengage the push rod entirely and preventactuation of the trip lever l-l on the exhaust stroke. This of course isparticularly applicable to a hitand-miss engine.

The electrodes 3 and 4 are normally maintained in engagement by means ofa helical spring 24 (see Fig. 1) having one end attached to the flangeor frame 6 and the other-end attached to the electrode shaft 5. Theopening of the electrodes is accomplished by means of a dog 25 rigidlyfixed on the electrode shaft and carrying a screw tappet 26. engagedfrom beneath by a stud 27 carried on the actuator or trip lever 14.This'stud serves also for the attachment of the spring 12, each end ofthe actuator being slotted to receive the eye on the end of a spring. Apin 28 at the opposite end of the actuator 14 from the stud 27 receivesand holds the eye on the end of the spring 18. and the parts are soproportioned that when the actuator is in the position shown in Fig. 2,that is to say in the normal nonfiring position. its axis willapproximately coincide with the axes of the spring helices, the springsbeing under suflicient tension to maintain this position.

Outside of the actuator, a magneto machine 3.1 is mounted on the bracket7, this machine being shown in plan in Fig. 1, but being removed in Fig.2 and the bracket shown in section. in order to expose the operatingparts. This magneto, as already stated. may be of any stated type orstructure provided it has a rotor or oscillator capable of producing aspark as required by the igniter. I do not herein claim any specificmeans for attaching the rotor or oscillator of this magneto to the otherparts, and particularly to the actuator, but I have indicated aconnection at 32 in Fig. 1 between the shaft of the magneto and theactuator 14:, which it will be remembered is free to oscillate on theshaft 40 surround ing the shaft 5. The connection thus indicated may beby means of screws, or a combination collar. or any desired type ofcoupling or connection. many devices suitable for this purpose being wellknown in the art. and one of them. a detachable pin and slot crankcoupling being described and illustrated in mv prior application SerialNo. 878.196. filed Decemper 19. 1914.

Referring to themodification shown in Fig. 3 the bearing of the triplever is in the form of a short post or stub bearing 40 carried bv thetrip lever and cooperating witha bore ll in the flan e 6, the stub shaftbeing locked in the bore in any well known manner. which is not hereshown. The igniter operating shaft 5 extends through a bore in the stubshaft 40 and is supported in a bore in the igniter body independently ofthe stub shaft. Another point of difference in this modified form isthat the tension means for holding the igniter shaft at normal is in theform ofa pull spring 42 connected between a pin in the igniter shaft atany suitable fixed point on the frame of the ignition unit. It isobvious that the spring 12 may be substituted by any other tension meanstending to hold the igniter shaft in normal position.

It will be noticed that in both forms here shown the bearings for theigniter shaft and trip lever while substantially in alinement and onewithin the other, are independently supported by the frame, whereby onlya tangential or rotary motion is transmitted from the trip lever to thedifferent operating shafts and all lateral and axial strains produced bythe operating forces are confined to the trip lever.

While I have set forth herein a preferred .specificform of my invention.it is to be understood that I do not limit myself to such a specificform but contemplate all other modifications as fall within the scope ofthe appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure byLetters Patant is:

1. An ignition mechanism for internal combustion engines comprising aframe, an igniter and a magneto carried by said frame, an operatingshaft for each of said igniter and magneto, a bearing for the ignitershaft, a bearing carried by said frame surrounding the said ignitershaft bearing, a trip lever carried by said bearing independently of theigniter shaft and means for transmitting motion from the trip lever toboth of said igniter and magneto shafts.

2. An ignition mechanism for internal combustion engines comprising aframe, an igniter and a magneto carried by said frame, an operatingshaft for each of said igniter and magneto. a hollow stub shaft carriedby the frame independently of said other shafts and surrounding saidigniter operating shaft, a trip lever loosely mounted on the stub shaftand means for transmitting motion from said trip lever to both of saidigniter and magneto-shafts.

3. An ignition mechanism for internal combustion engines comprising aframe, an igniter and a magneto carried by said frame, an operatingshaft for each of said igniter and magneto, a bearing for the ignitershaft, a bearing carried by said frame surroundiiig the said ignitershaft bearing, a trip lever carried by said bearing independently of theigniter shaft, means for transmitting the entire rotary movement of thetrip lever to the magneto shaft and other means for transmitting aportion of said rotary movement to the igniter shaft.

4. An ignition mechanism for Internal combustion engines comprising aframe, an lgniter and a-magneto carried by said frame,

I and magneto, a bearing for the igniter shaft,

an operating shaft for each of said igniter a bearlng carried by saidframe surrounding the said igniter shaft bearing, a'trip lever carriedby said bearing independently of the igniter shaft, tension meanstending normally to hold the trip lever in a given position, othertension means tending normally to hold the igniter shaft in a givenposition, means for rotating said trip lever through a predeterminedangular distance against the force of its associated tension means andthen trip or release the lever which suddenly returns to the said givenposition under force of its tension means and means for transmittingmotion from the trip lever to both of said igniter and magneto shafts.

5. An ignition mechanism for internal combustion engines comprising aframe, an igniterand a magneto carried by-said frame, a trip lever, abearing for each of said igniter shaft and trip lever carried by theframe independent of and concentric to each other and means fortransmitting motion from the trip lever to both of said igniter andmagneto shafts.

6. An ignition mechanismfor internal combustion engines comprising aframe adapted to be mounted on an engine, an igniter body carried by theframe in such manner as to be positioned ithin the ignition chamber ofthe engine, outer and inner circular bearing surfaces carried by saidframe,

the elements of. said inner bearing surface bearing surface, a bracketcarried by. the

being all Within the elements of said outer frameextending oppositelyfrom the igniter body, arms carried by the frame extending laterallyofsaid bearings, a plurality of posts carried by said arms and extendingtherefrom opposite of the igniter body, a

magneto mounted on the bracket .Withits operating shaft substantially inalinement with the'said bearings, an igniter device carried by theigniter body and positioned within the firing chamber of the engine, an

operating shaft for the igniter device carv lever with certain ofsaid'posts and tending normally to hold the trip lever in a givenposition, means operating in unison Withthe operation of the engine forrotating the trip lever against the force of the tension means andreleasingitto be suddenly returned to the said given position by theforce of the tension means and means for transmitting motion from thetrip lever to both the magneto operating shaft and the igniter operatingshaft.

In testimony WhereofJ hereunto affix my signature in the presence of twoWitnesses.

v HARRY RANDOLPH VAN DEVENTER. l/Vitnesses:

EDNA B. IsLER, E. H. RHAME.

copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each; iiyaddressing the Commissioner of Ifatents,

' Washington, D. '0.

